My sister HATES moths, so I continually try to find ways to pester her with this nugget of information. Therefore, this challenge presented itself in another way to irritate her phobia of cute harmless and fluffy insects. In the process of playing with macro photography, which I do very little of, I had to play around with many shots and often got frustrated. I tested on a local tree frog that sat on top of the porch light munching on the light-homing critters, and soon found some settings that worked. I balanced on a lawn chair over my parent's front door snapping shots into the night. I got one that I was somewhat pleased with, but I realize I have much room for improvement in this field.

The final agglomeration of lens parts looks both weird and awesome on the camera— might I suggest a contest for obscure lens assemblies?

I used this contest as an excuse to experiment with the Edge80 and macro adapters. The a77's focus peaking feature makes the manual nature of this lens much easier. I had the ComposerPro tilted slightly, my thought was that by skewing the focal plane I could deepen the DOF exactly in the direction I needed. Focusing is still pretty hit or miss regardless of the clever tools built into the camera, so I took advantage of the burst mode to fill my memory card with blurry shots, hoping to mine a gem later. Of almost 400 photos only 10 had acceptable sharpness :)

The photo was imported into Lightroom 4.1 and exported as jpegs from there. I bumped the contrast just a little, but otherwise this is what the camera captured.

I'm no taxonomist (and even less of an entomologist), but I am pretty sure this is an odonatoptera. I can't be sure if it is a dragonfly or a mayfly.

- Alec Berry

This picture was taken with my iPhone on Sunday, July 30, in Livingston NJ around 11:47 PM

We had thunderstorms on and off all weekend and for some reason all bugs in our area disappeared.
I went to the local brook with pieces of fruits and honey and spread them around the leaves and rocks, but after waiting and looking for
over 30 mins I still didn't find anything. I figured that at night I'll spread blanket over the flashlight against the wall to attract insects and take some cool shots but even that didn't work. We always have a lot of bugs in our backyard but this weekend there was nothing.
Finally I managed to find beautiful web next to stairs to my deck with a cool spider in the middle. I took a few shots of him thinking that he will have a hard time finding any snack here tonight.

Hornets are giant and scary but look almost as any other wasp. That's why to demonstrate insect's scale I introduced LEGO person into shot.
After some brainstorming it was decided to recreate look and feel of anime "Kaze no tani no Naushika". Particularly part when she wanders in toxic jungle. More on subject: http://www.animecrazy.net/nausicaa-of-the-valley-of-wind-images/481/Image/3727
Scenery for shot was built of dry sand, brushwood, fern and flowers. It also includes part of hornet nest and hornet on hairpin. Picture taken at night with single light source from left below. Whole instalment can be seen here:

Note for green people: nest was abandoned by family, I found it empty. Hornet whose stinging might be deadly was threatening humans so its death was inevitable.

I'd taken a ton of pictures of bugs in my parents' garden and gotten a lot of practice at it with my trusty old Canon P&S, so I figured I'd try it out once more and see if I get anything good enough for this contest. Luckily, it had been storming and it was incredibly humid here in northern West Virginia, so there was no shortage of bugs to photograph. After snapping a couple hundred (mostly out-of-focus) pictures, I was headed back in when I noticed a small mossy and plant-covered strip of wall right at eye level. Two centipedes caught my eye, as one was crawling around with the other one firmly attached to its back (I decided not to dwell on what they might be doing). After a bit of crawling around and having a few pictures taken of them, they ran across another centipede, and then I snapped this photo, with the third centipede crawling into the foreground and the two attached centipedes in the background about to follow him. I especially love how you can see the centipede's legs crawling over the tiny plants.

- Amaro Tuninetti

Equipment: Canon T2i with a 18-55mm Kit lens with a 10x macro attachment

Story: I love taking photos of bugs, its by far one of my favorite subjects. Most people don't stop to look at a tiny little bug, but us photographers do. I was walking around and i found a passion flower that had this small little bug on it. When i looked closer it was pretty neat it had an orange head that looked like a water drop with a black body. It had recently rained so it made the photo look even cooler.

- Andrew Smith

This picture was shot in RAW format at ISO800 in 1/640th of a second on 03/11/12 at 3:20pm in my backyard and developed in Adobe Lightroom 3.

Shot with a Nikkor 50mm F1.4 lens mounted in reverse to Canon T2i via an adapter. While shooting the Bees that gather around a particular shrub this massive Horsefly showed up so I captured a few shots of it too.

- Andy Allman

Shot with a Canon 30d and a Sigma 17-70 lens.

Out the door on my way to work, found this Florida Wheel Bug Nymph on the headlight of my car. I went and grabbed my camera and it posed nicely for me even with my camera a few inches away.

- Andy Graber

D40 180mm f/5.6 @ 1/125

- Andy Holton

My kit is a Canon Digital Rebel XT and an old EF 28-80mm f/3.5-5.6 II; both of which I bought off a buddy a year ago for $100. My wife and I were out in the garden and I was shooting pics of the bees, but then I remembered the hundreds of ants that I would see crawling on the trumpet vine growing along our fence. The vine is actually pretty invasive, but the flowers are so cool that I just can't bring myself to rip it out of the yard. I liked this shot because it shows the rightmost ant almost leaping from a bud to a flower. There was a slight breeze, so I'm pleased with the clarity given my level of skill (pretty low) and the limitations of my tools.

I went hiking with my husband this weekend not thinking I would be shooting for this challenge and I almost ran into this guy's web. Only having a zoom lens and a wide angle, I tried to get as close as I could stomach then zoomed in. A little sharpening was used because I had to shoot in manual (and was shaking because I was a little freaked out), but I think the composition came out pretty cool. Even looking at this on screen I get the heebe geebees!

- Ashley Carter

Camera: Canon 60D
Lens: Sigma 24mm f/1.8
ISO: 3200
Shutter: 1/4000

I was walking to the door of my home after getting off work (in my steel-toed boots), when I saw a butterfly flutter past me and land on a bush. I stopped and thought to myself "I should go grab my camera!" So I ran inside to do so, when I got back outside the butterfly was still on the bush. I crouched down to get a close shot and it flew to the next bush, naturally I got up and followed it. This happened two more times until it finally rested on the last bush in my yard. I snapped several photos with the lens only centimeters away from the bug. It just sat there flapping it's wings and enjoying the shoot. I was so eager to take the photos that I didn't realize my ISO was so high and so a good chunk of the photos are a little grainy.

- Austin Thomas

Thirsty Bee: Here's a thirsty honeybee drinking out of my birdbathtub after a rainstorm. It was almost sunset so the low ambient light made the camera set itself to 200 ISO. This makes the photo a little noisy, but I sort of like that. I didn't post process the image in any way.
Casio EX-FH20 in Super Macro mode, automatic exposure and focus. 10.1 mm, f 3.4, 1/80 exposure with anti-shake on. I shoot in widescreen mode to help me compose images that fill my computer monitor.

- Barbara Tomlinson

Handheld Canon 60D with Sigma 150mm F/2.8 Macro-lens, ISO200 at F/6.3
and using the built-in flash.
On holiday in Drake Bay, Costa Rica, we were eating our supper and
this massive 4" long Praying Mantis was sitting on the ceiling
(restaurants in the lowlands in Costa Rica don't have windows, and at
supper it's already dark so the lights attract many, many bugs). While
eating, suddenly we heard a loud buzzing sound which suddenly
sputtered and then stopped. Turns out the Mantis caught a Cicada *in
flight* and was consuming it with gusto. In the morning we found the
empty shell of the Cicada on the ground, the Mantis had disappeared
into the night.

The challenge made me recall an earlier one I didn't participate in, the one about focus stacking. I figured a macro shot would be perfect to have a go at it.

My idea for this shot was to make a tiny little spider look as terrifying as I could. I tried to get the little sucker to stay still, but he wouldn't have it, so I ended up jamming a pin into his abdomen. The pose is a little less natural for it, but the stack of focus would've been impossible otherwise.

- Bart Tieman

I was in the process of trying to shoo this guy out of the window he was sitting on when I saw my tripod propping the window open remembered the shooting challenge and grabbed my camera. He remained very well behaved throughout and didn't seem too bothered about having a massive lens stuck right in his face and flashes going off. I don't know what people walking past in the road must have though as I was baring down on them with a 300mm bright flashes. Nevertheless I was pretty happy with the result!

1/30s, ISO 800, f29, Flash at 1/8 power (on camera). This picture is made up of 4 pictures using focus stacking in Photoshop.

- Ben Deavin

Was at a neighbours for a BBQ and the sun was starting to go down.. which meant that the bugs were starting to come out... which reminded me of your shooting challenge. I Was originally think of a blood sucking mosquito shot when I say this little cobalt blue dragon fly land on the end of the grass.. Tried to get as close as I could but had some focusing issues.. This was the cleanest of the bunch.
Camera Info: Canon T3i w/ 18-55mm kit lens set on Apature priority of 5.6 (shutter was 1/125 iso 400)

- Bob Ivan

Shooting Details:

Canon Rebel XSi

EF-S55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS, ISO 200, f/5.6, 1/250

Explanation:

I was travelling in India at a site called Hampi in northern Karnataka exploring some temple ruins. I happened to notice dozens of dragonflies circling around a steam and was lucky enough to catch one resting on a branch. I was trying to avoid startling it and inched closer and closer until I finally was able to get the shot, unfortunately, that meant my knees going into the stream as well.

- Brandon Lindblad

Equipment: Canon EOS Rebel T3i with a 55-250mm kit lens.

Just a few weeks ago, my fiancee and I went location scouting for a place to take some pictures for our wedding website. We picked a random park, and walked down a trail to find a pond with a small dock. It was the perfect vantage point for capturing all the wildlife there (of which there was plenty, including frogs, turtles, fish, and lots of BUGS!). Of course we weren't there to take pictures of wildlife at the time, but I thought of this location immediately when this challenge was posted. We went back at dusk on Saturday, and took tons of pictures of dragon flies. I think it turned out great considering our lack of a macro lens (we were just zooming in from pretty close distances).

After walking my brother's dog, I was putting away the leash when I saw this little guy taking in some morning sun.

- Rudy Castillo

So, my buddy was late to Dralo (Drunk Halo Night) and when I showed up at the agreed upon apartment, I walked into to have a statement come flying at me: "Sorry, we've currently got a fly problem." . . . (-.-). . . I had time, so I immediately went to work trying to resolve the fly problem, and half way through realized that my chance at getting my bug shot was right in front of me! And then I realized I had a problem: Dead batteries in my D300, I didn't bring my AA battery pack, and a SB-800 flash can't sync with an iPhone. So I resorted to using my Olloclip Macro attachment for the iPhone, and my buddies old HTC Android phone for a light source. I got numerous good shots (The 2nd place was a Rorschach Fly), and finally decided upon this one, for all of the movement it's got in it. Also, it's gross.

I had returned home to Tucson from a vacation to the Pacific Northwest
disappointed having expected to have had dozens of opportunities to
get the perfect bug shot, but with none panning out.
When I went out to empty the recycle, this Cicada was sitting on a
flower in our garden. He seemed dazed since I was able to get quite a
few shots. This shot was clearly the best since it really showcases
the "bug-eyes" and his tiny Dali mustache.
I was shooting with the kit 18-55 on my Nikon D5100. I ran inside to
grab my 35 MM F1.8 prime to really do it up, but he was gone upon my
return; off to continue his special breed of noise pollution I
suppose.
I shot F8 - 1/250 - ISO 100.

- Charles Pifer

The Waitress messed up this guys order....

He'd ordered the Pooding...
Didn't leave a tip.
Was shot with a Canon 60D, a Canon 100 mm Macro Lens - f 5:6 at a 400 th Sec.
The ISO, was 100.

This is a spider that has lived outside of my window in an old flower box for the past couple of months. The storm that past through Brooklyn on 7/26 destroyed its' web so it was hiding under some of the dried weeds that have grown up over the summer.

- Chase Voorhees

This guy was buzzing around my back yard — I'm definitely not a bug guy so getting this close was a bit spooky. I dropped the diet Sunkist can to give a sense of scale and this guy hopped right on it. I shot with a Canon T1i, with the stock 18-55 lens (at 18mm) with a cheap Opteka macro lens attached, ISO 800 and the camera picked everything else out: 1/125 sec. at f/6.3. I decided not to crop the ring out because I actually like how it frames the curve of the can, but also it makes me feel like I was farther away than I actually was, which is comforting.

- Chip Lynch

Canon 50D
Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro
Canon 430EX flash

5 image focus stack in photoshop
Put the fly in the fridge for 10 mins to slow him down a little. Put him on a leaf and he sat there for about 5 mins before flying off.

- Chris Andrews

I took this photo from my brother and sister-in-law's dining room. We were standing around, and I saw the bug and I only had my iPhone 4S. While it's not the best camera to take a photo for a contest, it's the one I had.

- Chris Owens

There's a small cemetery near my office dedicated to Ken Pratt who's lineage owns most of the land around there. His grave site is adorned with a lot of granite slabs about him and flowers and trees. One of them, this purple flower bush (not sure the kind) is swarming with these little bees, so since I knew this challenge was running and I wanted to participate I figured I'd give it a shot.

I'm not too happy at the full 20Mpixel resolution, is looks especially blocky/quantized so I shrunk it by 50% before cropping.

Aside from focus, I actually mostly left the camera on Auto, since it still has better judgement about the scene than I do at this point. Besides that, here are the settings it chose:

Sony DSC-RX100 20Mpixel
f/5.6
1/500
ISO-125
10mm

- Chris Simpson

This was shot with my iPhone 4s outside my office this morning. There has been tons of web's all over the outside and today some lucky spider caught this huge bug as you can see from all the lines of webbing wrapped around it's wings. It's amazing that 5-6 web strands are holding this giant bug from getting away. I have no idea what it is, but it was still struggling a bit when I found it. It will probably feed a family of spiders for a long long time. 1/125 sec f/2.4 ISO 50

- Colin Brown

- Cory Kaufman

This submission was one of my last attempts at capturing some bugs late Sunday afternoon. My wife and I spent the afternoon in Youngstown,OH visiting family and decided to go to the gardens at a local park where I ended up getting some really great shots of bugs. When we returned to my in-laws house I walked around the back yard and noticed some cicada's attached to a tree. This particular bug (or remainder of one) had amazing eyes that seemed to magnify the light. This is my favorite of the many I took.

I was walking around a pasteur looking for the bugs that will bring me glory in the Gizmodo contest. I finds a large spider that tried to bite me. I finds a nest of fire ants which also tried to kill me. It was a bad day so far. Then, like my brother and sister on National Rabbit Day, I finds these bugs making the bang boom. I took many photos of the lovers in different positions and then I noticed that we were not alone. There was another bug very close by watching the entire scene. I look closely at the voyeur and I see on him the face I make when watching my brother and sister on Rabbit Day. Sadness, jealousy, and loneliness. I didn't even know bugs can make the bang boom and yet here before me was an episode of my favorite soap opera. I take the photo.